The England players look pretty damn crestfallen coming off, and well they might. They let that one slip, and will again rue dropped catches. There’s a proper disco going on on the grass banks of the Wanderers though, the home fans celebrating an extraordinary win that ties the series at 2-2. Morris won that for them in the end, providing the change of pace and astonishingly assertive temperament that yanked the match from England’s grasp, but South Africa’s overall performance in the field was superior to England’s, and they’ll go into Sunday’s decider in a better frame of mind than the tourists.

That’s me done for the day anyway – stay on the site for reports and reaction, and thanks for your company and emails about Opta tweets. Emotional.

Another turning point? Morris runs riot. Woakes is restored to the attack, given a chance to crown a highly productive day’s work for him. He squanders it horribly. He yields four straight away, a heads-down wild Morris drive that is edged down to third man, where Rashid can only fumble it into the ropes. Morris gets hold of the next ball, a decent length-ball that is clubbed over long-on for SIX. It necessitates some thinking, and precautionary field adjustments from Morgan, but to no avail as Morris cracks it square on the offside for two, well retrieved by Moeen on the boundary. It gets worse for Woakes – a wild, wild wide follows outside off stump. Morris adds a single leaving Abbott, again, to face the final ball. He sees it out. The Wanderers is absolutely bouncing.

Morris smacking it all over the park. Photograph: Gareth Copley/Getty Images

“Never mind the stats for winning with no-one scoring a 50,” writes John Starbuck “what about winning with the maximum number of dropped catches? England could set their own records here.”

It’s not quite over yet. Abbott ekes out a single from the excellent Topley to bring Morris back on strike, and he continues his attempts to throw the bat, Topley thwarting him with a fine return stop. He can’t do anything about the following delivery though, just back of a length and hammered over midwicket for SIX. A single follows, leaving Abbott to keep out the final ball of the over. Which he does, confidently, hammering a full toss straight into the stumps at the non-striker’s end.

I do like this pitch, excellent today as it was for the Test match here. Stokes finds swing and zest to hurry up Abbott. An incredibly risky run follows, but Morgan fumbles the run-out attempt at the non-striker’s end. Morris then grubs an edged two down to third man. The atmosphere is cracking now, and there are boos when Stokes’s speared delivery down the legside, that brushes Morris’s pad, is not called wide. There are more approving noises when Morris smacks a straight drive over Stokes’s head for two.

Morris may well ramp up his attacking approach now, slogging at Topley and adding two more. A single follows, bringing on strike Rabada, who falls first ball – a drive, an edge, a sharp take from the judiciously placed second slip, Root. Abbott gets off the mark straight away to get Morris back down the other end. Morris takes an even bigger risk – and is dropped! His horribly mistimed lofted drive is spilled in even more horrible fashion by Rashid. That would have been game over. England’s catching has left something to be desired this evening.

Root prevents a boundary with a fine diving stop at short mid-on from Morris’s swivel-pull, which smarts a little for the Yorkshireman, but he’s fine to continue. The batsmen trade the strike swiftly with singles, though Morris in particular seems eager to go for more, which might be why Morgan has five men in the circle inviting aggression, and catching opportunities. Which duly follow. But it’s Wiese who falls into the trap, cracking it to Morgan.

Morris brings up the 200 with a cleanly struck square drive for one, but Topley’s pace is asking questions, and beats Morris all ends up as the batsman attempts a claustrophic square cut. Morris is going for his shots regardless, taking two with a mistimed pull in front of square. The final powerplay arrives, with South Africa slight favourites I reckon.

Morris drives Stokes confidently through the covers for two, and adds a hastily-run single. Wiese adds another with a crack down to Rashid at wide third man. What’s the highest successful ODI run-chase in which no batsman has made 50, out of idling interest? South Africa are up with the rate in Duckworth-Lewis terms too.

Topley returns to the attack, and makes an instant impact, ending the partnership by reaching low to take a fierce drive from Behardien with his left hand. Tail up, he almost has another, appealing passionately for a leg-before against Wiese but the batsman had got an inside edge onto his pad. But only three runs and a wicket – you can’t ask for too much more from an over at this stage.

A change of pace: Stokes replaces Rashid, and he hurries Behardien up a little but the batsman is equal to it with a push off his hips for two. A single follows. There’s swing and zip there, but there’s also swing and zip in the outfield and when Stokes strays down the legside, flicking Wiese’s pad, the ball flies past Buttler and towards the ropes for four leg-byes. Stokes is doing his best pantomime-grimacing and glaring, the crowd responding with pantomime jeering.

Moeen continues – bowling his ninth over, no less – and the pattern continues. Singles aplenty – real old-school middle-over meandering stuff. It’s not that he’s bowling badly, more that he’s not necessarily what England need at the moment. A misfield at gully from Broad at the end of the over, surrendering another run-out chance amid indecision from the batsmen between the wickets, sums things up somewhat.

Rashid’s lot in life so often seems to be punishment for every loose delivery, hard-luck stories for the good ones, and so it continues as Wiese cuts a short and wide delivery through the gully region for four. These two are running very eagerly between the wickets, though it almost costs them when Wiese goes for a risky run to mid-off but the throw misses, and a quietly vital partnership continues.

Moeen again bamboozles Behardien with a quicker, pacier delivery that he misses, but these two are taking runs where they need and want, two more following a flick round the corner, before a single to long-on completes the over. Ninety-one needed from 16.

Behardien takes a too-easy single to start Rashid’s over, Wiese pushes down the ground for another, before Behardien punishes the first poor ball Rashid has sent down for a while, short and sitting up and just begging to be walloped over mid-on for four. Which it is. Another couple of singles are stolen and this partnership has stretched to 25 from 24.

Moeen continues, and it’s all twos and ones, and murmurs rather than roars in the crowd. Might be time for England to change up, though Wiese is hurried up a tad by one quicker delivery that he chops onto his boot but still gets two amid a fielding fumble.

Rashid is finding some quite extravagant turn at times here, and induces a rash slashed edge from Wiese that eludes second slip and brings a couple of runs. Buttler also has a half-chance at a stumping after Behardien feels at one and misses it, but the wicketkeeper can’t quite take cleanly. And that’s drinks, at a fascinating point in the match.

Rashid adjusts, and finds some decent length, variety and turn this time. Duminy manages two with a deft paddle down to fine leg, but this is as excellent an over of spin bowling as the previous one was rank. And it’s rewarded when Rashid traps Duminy in front with its final ball, one the left-hander doesn’t even bother reviewing. He was bang to rights.

Adil Rashid gets his first bowl, and it doesn’t particularly add to the pressure on South Africa it must be said. Behardien belts him through the covers for four. There are also singles, and a horrible wide outside off-stump, albeit one Duminy could and should have hit, incurring the wrath of Michael Holding who thinks such hittable deliveries should not be called wide.

“If only Jordan was in the team: he would’ve held those catches. Fickle,” Optas Julien Lesage.

The pressure’s on Duminy now – he’s batted decently so far but he’ll cop the blame for De Villiers’ dismissal. He clips a single off Moeen before Behardien gets off the mark with a push down to long-on for one. A much-needed tight over to complement the much-needed breakthrough one that preceded it.

De Villiers punishes a slightly over-pitched Woakes delivery with a crunching thwack over mid-off for four. Few can demoralise bowlers like De Villiers, who treats good and bad ball alike when in the mood – he promptly wallops a decent accurate ball past mid-on for four more. A single ensues, and an attempt to get another one off the last ball of the over is foiled by a run-out. De Villiers can’t make his ground as Woakes gathers and throws down the stumps. Suddenly, all is changed. Or is it?

The batsmen rotate the strike off Moeen with three singles, the last of which, against De Villiers prompts an excited lbw appeal from behind the stumps. England have no reviews now though, and the award of a run off the bat shows what the umpires think. A nudged two from De Villiers completes the scoring from the over.

The brief Broad experiment is curtailed, and the thus-far impressive Woakes returns. He finds more movement and lift, discomfiting Duminy with a bouncer intimidating enough that you could imagine it saying “Those shoes are too casual, you’ve had too much to drink, sling your hook” at a nightclub door. Duminy gets on top of the next short ball though, and pulls it in front of square for a single. A good over is spoiled by the final delivery, loose and short-ish outside off stump and Duminy cuts it mercilessly beyond backward point for four.

Duminy essays a mighty legside pull at Broad, but miscues it and it goes straight past the bowler for two rather than to square leg for four. His next attempt at the shot is rather more successful, a crack beyond mid-on to the boundary. Broad changes angle and stems the flow before conceding a single off the final ball of the over. England were 97-4 at this stage, but this is already looking a menacing South African partnership. How costly are those drops going to be?

Our first taste of English spin, Moeen Ali replacing Stokes. Both batsmen settle for working him away for singles, four of which ensue.

The Partridge-esque Opta tweets,” reckons Simon McMahon, “and in particular the one about Amla and Broad, may be a case of life imitating art, or vice versa. As we all know Alan presented a military based quiz show called Skirmish on digital tv channel UK Conquest. It regularly got an audience of 8,000 people. As the great man himself said, let me put that into perspective for you, that’s 11 times the population of Hemsby.” Accidental.

Broad returns to the attack and we have incident aplenty. De Villiers cracks his first ball straight at Roy at backward point, but he can’t hang onto it, dropping it as he hits the turf. The response from the reprieved batsman is brutal – a thumping four on the offside followed by a clean, mighty straight six over long-on. A single completes a possibly momentum-swinging over.

Duminy carves Stokes backward of square on the offside for a single, bringing De Villiers on strike and he’s itching to wrest back the initiative, springing onto his backfoot and belting Stokes across the line to the midwicket boundary for four. Stokes comes back with a big appeal for lbw against Duminy with the last ball and it’s reviewed after not being given. It’s almost a front-foot no-ball, Duminy is forward and in front of off-stump reprieved, but it’s only clipping and stays with the umpire. Not out.

Drop! An eminently catchable one – Duminy dries to drive off the back foot at a decent away-swinger and Hales at second slip snatches at it, diving in front of first-slip Jordan and parrying it up and onto the ground. The delivery, bowler and field-placing all deserved a wicket there. They take a single instead, as does De Villiers with an off-cut backward of square. One more follows – three from a good over. This is Woakes’s best match of the series. It’s easy to forget that only three other members of this England XI made their ODI debuts before he did, fact fans.